


(cursed) To end like this

by blue_spectrum



Category: Aldnoah.Zero (Anime)
Genre: Blood and Injury, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-10
Updated: 2015-03-10
Packaged: 2018-03-17 04:41:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3515729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blue_spectrum/pseuds/blue_spectrum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inaho and Slaine finally face each other and talk. It might be too late.</p>
            </blockquote>





	(cursed) To end like this

**Author's Note:**

> Influenced by dear limyth, who has to put up with this, and a couple of A/Z songs that I won't spoil. Rating is to warn you about the angst, blood and general tragedy.

“We should have talked sooner”

A voice as composed as the first time he heard it catches Slaine’s attention, preventing him from falling asleep. It sounds just like it did over the comm years ago, when they were facing countess Femieanne together. It’s somehow nostalgic, listening to that soft and level-headed deadpan, stating the obvious without emotion or interpretation.

There’s debris as far as Slaine’s eyes can see, they are alone as far as he can tell, abandoned in the middle of nowhere after a fight that is mere seconds away from taking his life. It’s so ironical, those words and these arms that helped him out of his destroyed Tharsis, that the blond does the only thing he can: he laughs until his stomach hurts, until his battered body shakes and his lungs complain.

Inaho’s eyes light up at the outburst, something unreadable that’s either pity or understanding dancing like dying flames. It doesn’t matter which one, since to Slaine, that these are his last moments is just another accident, another plan gone wrong in the series of unfortunate happenings that constitute his life. Nothing has ever been really alright, from the beginning, from when he lived on Earth with his father. The longing for a home that he never knew is deeper now than it ever was before.

It’s an unexpected turn of events that here, lying in the ground next to his broken Tharsis, when he is about to lose the only valuable thing that no one was able to take from him, he somehow manages to feel more hopeful than ever.

Here, with his life on the line, with the one that was his nemesis until half an hour ago, the only one that could have killed him. The same _Orange_ that gave him so many headaches while fighting on opposing ends, the one that has just declared, fully aware that there’s nothing to be done now, that they should have talked sooner.

He _hopes_ because deep down, he knows they share the same ideals. Their means may not be aligned, but there is no difference between them. Slaine is hopeful because he believes that Kaizuka Inaho has the intellect and resilience to carry on their goals, to put an end to this pointless but necessary war. Humankind needs to be one and the same once again, no Earth, no Mars: brothers and sisters, parents and children-

Slaine coughs, his weakened body jerking violently, brain on the verge of passing out. What was he thinking about, he can no longer remember. He feels something warm filling his chest though, and is unsure if it’s blood gushing out or the long forgotten sentiment of joy. Among the darkness that has settled over them, he sees Inaho come to his side and stop running data on his eye to hold him in a sitting position, his touch gentler than what the blond could have ever imagined.

“Your lungs are failing”, he states, once again as if they weren’t in the middle of nowhere, as if his kataphrakt wasn’t, too, destroyed beyond repair.

Slaine’s chest rises, tears smearing dust on his cheeks, trying to laugh, but this time he can’t, there’s too much blood everywhere and instead of air, a cough of red tints his lips and stains his vest. Inaho doesn’t move back and opens Slaine’s clothes, leaving his torso partially exposed, surveying the damage and trying to look for a way out. He soon realizes that this is something even he can’t fix.

Slaine is fine with that, with this. He thinks of the road that lead him here, thinks of how he has done everything he could, resorted to very possible way that could help him obtain his goals. He thinks about the fact that his last action was to commit high treason against the very new government he was trying to create. He has given Inaho valuable, vital intel with a few of his last breaths.

He can’t see it now, that light at the end of the pain that was supposed to be his objective. He has been feeling lost for so long, refusing to acknowledge it, confident that the only thing he needed was hope but knowing that he had none of it left.

Until now, when his mind slips into unconsciousness slowly, his limbs going numb and getting colder by the second. He looks up and sees this boy moving his lips, his mechanical eye focusing and unfocusing without rest. He can’t remember why he hated him, what went wrong between them. For a blissful second he even forgets what went wrong with _him_.

Slaine wants to say that it’s alright, that he knows to trust Inaho’s convictions now that they understand each other. It’s the first time in _years_ that he’s wanted to look someone in the eye and talk _truths_ , talk about believing in miracles.

His green eyes shed tears that reach his weak smile, his vision blurry. Blurry. Dark and darker, almost black, sight lost in Inaho’s brown hair.

Just before he goes, he catches the words from Inaho’s lips: _hold on, Bat_.

Just after he goes, Inaho catches the last tears at the corners of Slaine’s smile. He knows his odds, so he just stays there, holding the man that was his greatest enemy close, for once seeking the human contact, the heat that has yet to abandon his body.

This is a dawn he never expected to see, so beautiful and lonely. He goes smiling too, head loose and red tears becoming one with Slaine’s.

> _Hold me now_  
>  _Catch my hopes_  
>  _Feel me now_  
>  _In your arms_
> 
> -“No differences” (lyrics by Benjamin Anderson and mpi)


End file.
